Free telehealth training program launches
The online modules are available to all government-funded homes.
A partnership of primary health networks has launched a national telehealth training program for the multitude of people delivering care to aged care residents.
The Residential Aged Care Home Telehealth Training Program aims to provide consistent training on how to best use telehealth in aged care homes.
Western Victoria Primary Health Network is leading the consortium – which currently consists of 15 primary health networks across Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland.
WVPHN chief executive officer Craig Wilding said the training program – first announced in February – aims to assist all levels of workers in the industry.
“It uses the latest education learning and technology to support professionals working in residential aged care homes – from personal care workers to nurses, managers, onsite clinicians and other health professionals. Two learning streams have been developed to recognise the unique educational needs of residential aged care home staff and health clinicians who are providing services to residents.”
James Stack, managing director and co-founder of Obvious Choice – whose learning design company created the program – said it adopts the microlearning training model. “Modules are about six minutes long, so they can easily fit around busy schedules. Each provides practical advice, a checklist and resources to help apply learning quickly.”
Mr Stack said microlearning was an ideal way for aged care providers to train staff in subjects such as telehealth. “Evaluation data from nurses across other telehealth training programs indicate a strong end-user preference for this format.”
The training program – which is accredited through the Royal Australian College of GPs, the Australian College of Nursing, and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine – is available free of charge to all government-funded residential care homes and to clinicians who provide telehealth to aged care residents.
I can access residents across the state
Amanda Woodlands, nurse practitioner
Telehealth is increasingly being used across various care settings as it provides a multitude of benefits – including reducing the need for unwell or frail residents to leave their homes, saving clinicians travel time, and allowing access to specialists unavailable locally.
“Telehealth has allowed our residents to access specialist appointments that they would not have previously been able to, due to our remote location and inability to travel to their appointments,” said Chelsea Roberts – director of nursing at Jacaranda Village in Red Cliffs in northern Victoria.
Amanda Woodlands – a nurse practitioner working across 11 aged care homes in NSW – also extolled the benefits of telehealth. “Telehealth reduces the challenges of covering such a large geographical area,” she said. “With telehealth, I can access residents across the state from anywhere and at any time. This creates better efficiencies so I can then have more time to be a clinician and not a driver.”
Training modules can be uploaded to eligible providers’ learning management systems and set up to suit the individual needs of each organisation.
Providers can register to participate here.
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